It is now common knowledge that stress plays a large role in a person’s well being. Now that March/tax season is fast approaching, many of us are undoubtedly feeling our normal level of stress increase even just a little bit.

We would like to remind you to make efforts towards managing your stress level and lowering it to a healthy level. Here are five quick ways to stay cool, calm and collected during the most stressful season of the year!
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1. Find Your De-stressing Position: Many times, what causes stress is our Sympathetic Nervous System taking control and not allowing our Parasympathetic Nervous System to take over to calm us down. This can result in increased stress, anxiety, and nightmares. According to this article in the Huffington Post, laying on our backs with our legs parallel against the wall (90 degree angle) is a position that greatly stimulates the Parasympathetic Nervous System. Laying in this position and taking deep breaths will help calm you down at the end of any hectic day.

2. Take a break and eat a healthy snack: Often times during a stressful day, we forget to take a few minutes to adequately nourish our bodies. Energy comes from the consumption of quality foods and taking a snack break also provides a few minutes of “do nothing” time where we are not expected to perform, perform, perform. Some of our recommended snacks are almonds (high in healthy fats), carrot sticks (high in betacarotene), and yogurt (a good source of healthy dairy).

3. Take an active class at least once a week: Optimally, we would all have time for at least an hour of active activity a day. And no – we don’t mean walking back and forth around the office. Physical classes provide us the opportunity to be active in a stimulating and engaging way. For high cardio activity, try a local spin class. For something a little more fun and interactive, try a zumba or aerobics class.

4. Go to Your Happy Place: We all have different places that we find invigoratingly peaceful – may it be the ocean, or the mountains, or simply our backyard. Wherever it may be, be sure to visit this calming place at least once every other week and spend some time centering yourself. This practice, over time, becomes surprisingly effective in helping us manage the million things we juggle in our daily lives away from our favorite place.

We hope that this provides you some easy ideas for stress management – and we would love to hear your feedback regarding stress and how you deal!

We have recently caught up with Amie Valpone, a personal chef and culinary specialist who is also the Editor-in-Chief of TheHealthyApple.com. We connected with her at last year’s Expo West convention and were delighted to learn about her “clean” recipes that are gluten-free and dairy-free friendly. Amie is greatly passionate and dedicated to her philosophy of “clean” foods and has been featured in numerous publications including Huffington Post, Clean Eating Magazine and Martha Stewart just to name a few.

Amie loved our MicroSalads and we are delighted to have had the chance to chat with her about her organization, and our MicroSalads. Stay tuned for Amie’s contest featuring our Micro Salads coming soon!

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What inspired you to start TheHealthyApple.com?Getting sick- I was so sick for so long and food was what was killing me. Removing gluten, dairy, soy and sugar has saved my life and made me feel so much better!

What do you hope for the site to ultimately provide for your subscribers?To heal them and help them feel good about eating real food instead of processed foods!

What is your favorite thing about your job as founder of TheHealthyApple and being a professional chef?Helping people and meeting amazing people everyday who tell me that I am an inspiration to them. I just want to help people realize that food is medicine and really does heal!

When did you discover Organic America/Micro Salads and what was your first impression?Last year at Expo West and I was in love the second I laid eyes on them!

As a culinary professional, would you recommend Micro Salad products to be used by others in their cooking?Yes of course; they’re wonderful with salads, vegetables and lean proteins!

Which Micro Salad, that you have tried, is your favorite kind?I love them all; it’s too hard to choose just one!

In your opinion, what is the best thing about Micro Salads (flavor, nutrients, affordability, etc.)?Flavor is the best part and they are SO fun to use. My clients love seeing them on their food; they look so pretty and make people want to eat more veggies!

Today, February 10th, marks the Chinese New Year celebration of 2013. We here at Organic America would like to wish you a healthy and very prosperous new year with lots of good luck coming your way.

2013 is the year of the Snake – which according to the Chinese culture website www.hanban.com, is the most independent, insightful, refined, enigmatic and intuitive of all the 12 Chinese animal signs. Old Chinese tradition tells that if you are blessed to have someone in your family born in the Year of the Snake, that the family will never have to worry about starving.

Since the color of the 2013 snake is “black”, we should all expect unexpected changes to come our way. Experts advise to remember to plan all things ahead of time to be prepared for these changes to ensure for a successful year.

We would love to know how you are all celebrating to bring in the new Chinese year! Tweet us your plans at @organic_america.
Warm Regards,
The Organic America Team

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Organic America for a Healthy Lifestyle!

At Organic America, we strongly believe in eco-friendly, energy-efficient agriculture that nurtures the environment and creates a minimal carbon footprint. We take pride in what we do, because we believe in conserving the Earth’s natural ecological balance.

We all share responsibility in caring for our beautiful planet. At Organic America, it’s how we do business.